Christian Gallagher: Traveler, Photographer, Filmmaker.

For the map project I really wasn’t sure where we would all go. Because we were suppose to do something creative to our map I decided I would document each step with video as I went along the path of destruction.

After scratching, stapling,drawing bike routes, running over with a bike, using as a doormat, inking, crumpling, steel wooling,spraying, enflamed steal wooling, burning it and dousing it in water, my map was pretty destroyed.

Before we got the project to create something out of it my friends and I joked that we would have to put the map back together how it was. Once we got the project I thought further along that idea and decided to make a backwards video so that that map would appear to be fixed by the end. I edited it in the order that I did each thing and then reversed the sequence as a whole.

When I made this sequence I began to notice the sounds rather than the visuals and thought of a new idea that was much more exciting and challenging.

By using various sounds from each clip I created a beat adding a layer of sound each time. After hours of timing and audio editing I went to work on the visual aspect.

All of the video and sound layers at the end of production.

I sketched out several layouts that would be able to incorporate each layer of corresponding audio with it’s visual. I attempted to create layouts that would emphasize each new sound as it entered the mix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSbsXTb0Mx4

I was very happy with the class’ response to the piece which was limited but positive; people said they love it and that it was music. I was glad to hear this having very little musical experience. I pretty much created this piece by banging a beat out on the desk with my hand than imagining what sound to add next based on what I had at my disponsal. The only things I recorded after the initial destruction of the map was the ball spinning in the spray can and the sound of the spray because the original spray was too far away from the camera mic to be audible. I had a lot of fun playing around with this project overall and will probaly try to recreate it in the future on my own.

Now that the ABC 123 project is done I see letters everywhere as I walk around. Not that I found finding them particularly difficult aside from carrying a small camera with me wherever I went picking up letters here and there I took a specific walk once or twice to find them all.

The first step was of course finding all of the letters and numbers throughout town.

I wanted to take a different route and make a video that utilized all the letters I found as a font rather than simply displaying the letters as just the alphabet.

To expedite this I rendered each letter individually with a green back ground that could later be keyed out.

Then I arranged the letters into the quotes I had chosen. I had hoped this would be easier by rendering each individually, which it definitely was but not as easy as I had thought.

Realizing I had not used all the letters I organized an alphabet as everyone else had as well to display that I had gotten a picture of every letter and number.

I overlaid each quote onto various video to find that the chroma key had left thing lines of green around each letter and randomly in space. I decided I didn’t like how the video looked and the slight motion had the danger of distracting the view further from the already difficult text to read. I went back and created a layout utilizing all 4 quotes and also an alphabet lay out.

Video Attempt:

During this final process I had to go back and remove each green streak individually until I found a way to do this quick that also created rounded corners on my otherwise harsh square letters. I was content with the result despite it not being what I had envisioned. I was able to display my attempts digitally in class. The class (and I) wished I could have printed a version of the quotes but ultimately they liked the idea of using the letters as a font instead of simply placing them in order. They also recognized the extra work I had done in the attempt of an unique idea.

For this particular project I had a lovely time reclining out on Dyson field in a hammock next to the highway. I listened for the sounds and then later thought of a way to visually represent these. My first Idea was perhaps a video of each object with a quick directional pan(transition) to the next object to create a sense of environment. Then I decided to perhaps do a photo map with the items that made the side in relation to how I heard them around me. This idea progressed to taking the photos and transforming them so that the loudest and longest sounds were the brightest. This allowed me to come to my actual idea that takes the point of view from above the scene looking down at my self. The different things I heard became different color sound clouds that emanated from each location. I decided on the color, by sitting quietly and thinking of the sound, the first color that came to mind I would use for that object. The intensity was then determined by how prominent the sound was in the environment.

I enjoyed the group project alot, being able to collaborate with others allowed ideas to flow out and be elaborated upon.  We came up with several ideas that none of us would have thout about on our own. Our conclusion was to recreate the story of Adam and Eve through the assignment given to us to illustrate the story of Jack and Jill.

We began by brainstorming how to recreate it and came up with some twists such as Jack(Adam) being the one to eat the fruit first. The next step was to sketch out a rough storyline to follow which we then digital recreated in Photoshop (becuase of the requirement to use the original shapes). Since the final project had to be by hand we transfered the digital drafts via tracing paper to the bristol board and inked the final result with india ink and marker.

In the critique everyone seemed to understand and like our story. This is most likely to the  #Eden to set the enviroment at the start. People couldn’t stop talking about our costumes, they thought they were a cute way to differentiate between Adam and Eve (Jack and Jill) and there was much debate whether they should be dressed before they eat the fruit. This kept people’s attention longer because there were details to be thought about. Seeing it all together our group saw the distracting nature of the large focal point in panel 5 and the repetition of the diagnol in panels 1-4. Otherwise people seemed to enjoy our piece and thought the use of box characters was unique versus using one of the many potential characters on our shape sheet.

www.photoguides.net

PhotoGuides is a great website for aspiring photographers. The website is particularly interesting because hosts a series of photo tutorials,galleries of inspiring photos,and refreshing stories of photo news. The aesthetic of the website also makes it easy for readers to find interesting articles and navigate around the site. The site is divided into categories and hosts a related articles widget at the bottom of every articles which keeps the reader on the site reading each interesting article.

www.videocopilot.net

Filmakers and Visual Effects artists of all levels are aware(or should be) of the great tutorials offered on the Video Copilot blog. The blog offers over 100 in-depth tutorials on subjects ranging from basic editing to advanced 3-d animation. What makes the site stand out is it’s ease of navigation and extensive archive of data. Specifically on the Blog section the each article is summarized and linked to a more extensive article.

www.filmschoolrejects.com

Film School Rejects is a great blog to keep up with the latest movie news, read recent review, and see the newest trailers. The blog hosts a easy navigation with a blog style which summarizes longer articles so that the reader can browse multiple articles and read a small section of each before deciding to read the entire thing. This blog also allows readers to search specific topics that may interest them.

   www.finalcutking.com

Final Cut King is another blog geared towards helping filmakers do the best with the video equipment they have and editing things to look realistic. The Blog is divided into categories that allow the reader to watch videos, see the behind the scene footage, or get a step by step tutorial. Having categories also allows for users to choose related articles(videos) at the end of each article.  Zach King has also monetized his blog by selling in-depth software training videos; however the blog also gives lots of free content.

Overall, what makes a blog successful and appealing is interesting content that is well managed and to coin a design class term “economical.” Content is key in the blogging world, if a blogger has the most beautiful layout but no content to hold the readers attention it will never gain a large following. That being said if there is interesting content but the reader has to jump through hoops to find it the reader will again overlook it. Additionally when people read a blog post they don’t want to be sit at the computer for half an hour reading every detail, they want the meat and to get in and out with the information they want as quickly as possible. The overall goal is to have interesting content that is easily navegable, and is short sweet and to the point.

The Exploration assignment was to create designs that graphically showed the following.

Order

Order: an authoritative direction or instruction; command; mandate.(Dictionary.com)

I decided to go a little more direct with my designs this time since before we were restricted to keep things non-representative before. The exploration was more to define the word than a element of Design; therefore I chose to create a spaceship like object heading towards a seemingly circular object with authoritative direction. The object however is designed completely of identical squares each rotated 10 degrees until the process started over again.

Congested

Congested:to fill to excess; overcrowd or overburden; clog.(Dictionary.com)

This design uses contrast to emphasis the congested side. On the left we see 5 shapes which have the freedom to move freely and are illustrated to display motion and direction. On the right was see lots of the squares congested and so cloase together they’re resticted from motion.

Increase

Increase:to make greater, as in number, size, strength, or quality; augment; add to.

This design represent the commonly seen Fibonacci sequence seen in Nature, where the pattern takes the previous two pieces height and width and then adds them together to get the next increased piece. Repectively in this piece 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13, etc…

Playful

Playful: full of play or fun; sportive; frolicsome. (Dictionary.com)

This set of squares depicts two square people throwing a group of squares back and forth in the classic let’s play catch scene between kids. Again the “ball” is a set of squares rotated each 10 degrees more than the last to create a circular illusion.

Bold

Bold: not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff.

This piece includes a square man boldly walking across a tight rope between two high objects. This creates a bit of tension but is eased by the fact that the “rope” is between the “Square” and gravity. See next piece for tension.

Tension

Tension:mental or emotional strain; intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety, or excitement.

Although the piece is only slightly modified from the bold piece I like that the small change creates so much tension and anxiety in the picture as the “square begins to fall from the high height.

PS. No squares were harmed in the illustration of these designs.

I was going through some photos I’ve taken and found these two which kind of resemble our exploration assignment.

Isolation: Seagull among Skimmers

Concentration: Ink in Water